Joe Lacob promised a WNBA title within five years.  The Valkyries won it in their second season

SAN FRANCISCO - On Oct. 5, 2023, the day the WNBA awarded the Bay Area a new team, Warriors owner Joe Lacob made a promise in a video clip the league posted on X.  "We will win a WNBA championship in the first five years of this franchise," Lacob said.

The Golden State Valkyries needed two.  They beat the Atlanta Dream 68-63 in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals on Oct. 31 at Chase Center, the team said, becoming the first expansion team to win the title in its second year.  An expansion team is a brand-new team added to a league.

A deadline he had set before

Lacob and his business partner Peter Guber also own the NBA's Golden State Warriors, according to the league's 2023 announcement.  The new team was the WNBA's first new franchise since 2008, and it made the Warriors the sixth NBA owner group with a WNBA team.  "The Bay Area is the perfect market for a WNBA team," Lacob said in the announcement.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said then that Lacob, Guber "and their leadership team know how to build and operate a world-class organization."

The five-year goal echoed his record with the Warriors, who won an NBA title within Lacob's first five years running the team, the Valkyries' website noted when the coach was hired.  The team said Lacob backed the promise with money:  a practice facility in Oakland, a personalized locker room and Chase Center as home court.  The Oakland building had been the Warriors' practice gym and offices from 1997 to 2019, according to the league.

Building a team from nothing

General Manager Ohemaa Nyanin started with no players.  In the December 2024 expansion draft, each of the league's other 12 teams could protect up to six players, and Golden State picked 11 from those left over, the league said.  One was guard Veronica Burton, who had started one game for Connecticut in 2024.  A year later she was the league's Most Improved Player, the team said.

The first-year Valkyries won 23 games, the most by an expansion team, and became the first expansion team to make the playoffs in its first season, the team posted on X.  Nakase was named 2025 Coach of the Year.

Then came a free agent the team could not have drafted.  In April 2026, All-Star forward Gabby Williams, who has roots in the Bay Area, signed with Golden State.  "For a player of Gabby's caliber to choose us in just our second year means everything," Nyanin said in a team article.  Williams scored 30 points in Game 7 and was named Finals MVP.

"He set the standard"

At the postgame news conference, Nakase gave the owner much of the credit.  "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Joe," she said, in video the team posted.  "Joe interviewed me, he hired me, he believed in me, and he set the standard."

She said Lacob told her that whoever took the job had to win within five years.  Her answer, she recalled:  "Yes, that's gonna happen, but even faster."  She said he promised "all the resources you want" and added that "Joe shows up for every playoff game."

"Someone who invests in women's sports, this is a result," Nakase said.

Fans invested too.  The team has sold out every home game in its history, 53 in a row through Game 7, the team said, and more than 12,000 people bought 2026 season tickets, a league record.

Source:  WNBA on X, Oct. 5, 2023; WNBA 2023 expansion announcement; Valkyries championship release; Valkyries Game 7 recap; Valkyries on Nakase's pedigree, Oct. 2024; WNBA expansion draft release, Dec. 6, 2024; Valkyries on Burton; Valkyries on X, Sept. 19, 2025; Valkyries on Williams' signing; Valkyries Game 7 news conference video; Valkyries sellout release.